Your Final Chance
by VolcanicPizza
Summary: Sometimes, what you think is a perfect ending doesn't fix everything. Sometimes, it leaves people worse off than where they started. Niko thought it was the perfect ending and was wrong. Niko thought downloading a game wouldn't change anything and was right. All that is true is that it has been a year, and the player needs to be saved. From what, you might ask? Simple: themself.
1. Anticipating Silence

**A/N: Guess who finally got around to playing OneShot? Me.**

 **Guess who's emotionally devastated, even after Solstice? Also me.**

 **Therefore, I immediately jumped to my usual coping strategy: writing fanfiction.**

 **I'm using gender-neutral pronouns for Niko so that people's headcanons aren't disturbed. Also, this is kind of an AU or something where the player could talk to Niko directly. I'll probably decide on a name for them by next chapter.**

 **As goes without saying, this story will have lots of spoilers.**

* * *

 _A god I am,_ declared some in fits of egomania, only to be incinerated by divine wrath seconds later.

This god... was not like that at all. In fact, at times it didn't seem as if they even wanted to be a god.

This god was, for lack of a better word, _different,_ as Niko discovered early on.

They didn't seem to take their duties or role very seriously, as they found out. They made jokes constantly, told Niko to do silly things for seemingly no reason other than because they found it funny, and once even jokingly suggested putting the sun in a metal crusher, laughing at their expression afterwards and assuring them it was just a joke and they'd never ask them to do that for real.

They only grew serious on a few occasions. The first was whenever Niko awoke from their dreams. As the child pulled themself from under the covers, the god greeted them quietly and listened to what they said in silence, only speaking to answer Niko's questions. As Niko talked about what they'd dreamed of and queried about whether things were the same for them, the god would respond solemnly, no joking around on their part. For some reason, they seemed to greatly value what Niko would talk about after waking up, though they never said why.

Whenever Niko grew sad, this clearly upset the god as well. They would immediately jump to trying to cheer them up, almost pleadingly telling them they could go home soon and it wouldn't be much longer. Of course they'd see their family again, they reassured them, of course they would, and in their role as a god they would do everything they possibly could to help them.

The god clearly cared for Niko, and truth be told, as time passed the child had begun to see them as a friend as well. After all, without their industrious searching for clues and knowledge they seemed to pull from nowhere, Niko probably would not have made it past the barrens, and they freely admitted that. No shame in needing help, after all, and if said help is some kind of god, even better!

When the god went silent again, after Niko had made it to the elevator and begun their journey up to finally replace the sun, they knew something was wrong. So, with the elevator humming quietly in the background, they said, "Sure is taking awhile."

Silence.

"I guess this elevator leads to the top of the Tower..." they tried, with no response. "Are you excited? We're finally gonna save the world! And I know it's for real this time, cause you're here! And then I'll get to go home for real this time, too! I... I can't wait to see everyone again-"

There was a stifled choking noise from the god.

"Are you okay?" Niko's eyes were bright with worry as they craned their neck upward, knowing the effort to see the god to be futile but doing it anyway. Their hat nearly fell off as they did, and they quickly reached up to hold it in place.

The god's voice finally sounded, and it was despondent. "Niko... I... There's something I need to tell you."

A spark of worry twisted in Niko's stomach. "I'm listening."

"We... I... can't..." They seemed to have trouble speaking, finally spitting it out in a single burst, voice sounding as though the words were rotting in their mouth. "We can't save both, Niko. It's... we can't save both the world and you."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"To... If... If we want to send you home... then, the lightbulb... we have to break it. We have to break the lightbulb."

"What?" A shock ran through them. "But won't that... end the world? This is... this is just another joke, right?" they pleaded. "It's not funny-"

"I WOULDN'T JOKE ABOUT THIS!" snarled the god in sudden anger, causing Niko to flinch and instinctively pull the lightbulb to their chest.

The god seemed to immediately regret their outburst. "I..." They let out a harsh sigh. "Listen. You have to break the lightbulb to return home, but that would also destroy this world. If you put the lightbulb in its proper place, then the sun will be restored, but..." For once, they seemed at a loss for words. "I have no idea what happens to you then. I don't... even know if you'd... survive."

Both of them remained silent for the rest of the ride.

At the top, the pedestal waited patiently for them, waiting for the sun to be placed.

"I can't fix this." the god said at last. "I'm so sorry, Niko."

They both stared at the pedestal without saying a word.

"What should I do?" Niko asked after a few minutes. Surely, they would know which one was the right choice. "Please. I can't..." They let their sentence trail off into oblivion, forever unfinished.

The god's response came within a few seconds. But it wasn't a simple statement, telling them what to do with the sun. Instead, it was a long, melancholy scream reverberating with anger and heartache.

When it ended, the god spoke, and their voice sounded broken. "I had one shot," they said, seemingly not talking to Niko but rather themself. "And I... I made this happen?"

"This wasn't your fault." Niko told them quietly.

"It's easier to blame myself, though." was the response. They were silent again for a while, before saying, "If... if we hadn't interacted with any of the people living here, then I'd tell you to break the bulb with no hesitation. I'd be able to pretend, I'd just pretend that this world is fake, that these people, they were fake. I could let them all vanish into the void so you could go home. Niko... You don't deserve to be trapped in some foreign, dying world with no hope to escape. You're... a great person, you know that? Even if you might not think so yourself." Their voice sounded tired as they went on. "You're certainly a better person than I could ever hope to be."

"But you guided me all this way and helped me! I'd never have made it here if it wasn't for you! You're a god! I'm just... a kid."

"Please. You were the backbone of this ga- this journey. You were the one who lived all of this. I just watched and talked to you. It's a testament to your strength that you got here with an incompetent 'god' like me weighing you down." Their voice seemed... almost bitter. Before Niko could dispute what they'd said, the god continued, "I can't accept that these are my only choices. If the game won't play fair, then I WON'T, EITHER. Give me a moment, I'll try to figure something out."

They were gone for a while, and just as Niko was about to ask if they'd left for good, they returned, a spark of vitality injected into their voice. "I've figured something out." they said, "but you'll have to promise to trust me. Put the sun on the pedestal, and I will initiate the solstice."

Even though they had said that they had figured out something, despite everything they had said about wanting them to go home, it still hurt to know that they would sacrifice Niko's chance to return to their world. _But they must have figured something out,_ they reminded themself, stifling the feeling that they had been betrayed. "I trust you," they said, stepping up to the pedestal to replace the sun. "Please don't leave me by myself."

"I won't leave you, ever." promised their voice, eldritch and omnipresent. "You'll see them all again, Niko. I promise."

They set the sun atop the pedestal, and everything was obliterated by a wall of white.

* * *

They awoke in the same bed from the very beginning, calling out the god's name and immediately wondering what it meant and why they had said it.

Deprived of their memories and with everything set back to zero, they traveled across the areas, with the constant assurance that everything would be okay.

They had to admit, the god's newfound, infallible optimism was reassuring, even before they regained their memories of what happened previously. Even as all of their friends and allies died around them, the god constantly reassured them, "It's going to be okay. Everything will turn out perfectly. I can fix things this time."

Even with the revelation that they weren't, in fact, a god, but actually just had opened a world simulator on their computer and appeared omniscient but actually had barely any power, they continued to reassure Niko, "You've got this. We've got this. We'll make everything better, I know we can."

But Niko was never sure until they met the World Machine, until their revelation that it was tamed, until the squares began to disappear before them. Even then, it was not until they had walked through the so-called "credits" and into the newly-brightened bedroom that they finally allowed themself a breath. They hadn't been betrayed, after all. They really were still friends. They had managed to get a happy ending, after all...

But they had never considered whether this was a happy ending for _everyone._ They had never considered that maybe, there was one person who couldn't enjoy the happy ending with everyone else.

They never considered it, because they didn't believe that this ending couldn't be perfect.

But it wasn't.

Saying farewell to the person who had guided them all this way and never left their side physically hurt them, but they did their best to hide their sorrow. They didn't want to have them remember them as a crying wreck, after all. The "god" seemed to be trying to keep up the same mask, too, and they would have really believed that they weren't hiding their emotions, but for one detail.

Because as Niko walked towards the distant light, they could distinctly hear them give in and begin sobbing helplessly.

* * *

Niko had promised to never forget. They had promised they wouldn't forget the adventure they had and the experiences they shared, and indeed after a year they hadn't. How could they forget such a world, after all? It was true, upon waking up they had thought it was all just a dream and nearly forgotten it all, and indeed they would have if they hadn't stopped and wondered how the dream had seemed so real, how the memories of all of the people of the world they had given back the sun to felt genuine and not like the artificial landscapes of a dream...

And that was all it took for them to recall everything.

A year would have been enough time to forget. But for someone who was patient enough to try to write down everything they remembered and refused to stop until they'd transcribed all of their adventures?

Well, it was not.

And now...

Niko sat patiently at their chair, waiting for the computer to load. They had decided to try downloading and playing some games, perhaps to help them drift into nostalgia as they remembered the world and people they had left behind.

Though none of the currently popular games caught their attention, towards the bottom, a game called "Your Final Chance" seemed interesting, so they clicked on it, swinging their feet impatiently as the page loaded. The logo towards the top was completely black save for a pair of narrowed purple eyes, glowering from above a rusted scythe blade. There was a trailer beneath that, so they clicked play.

A somber piano tune started playing, and a line of red text appeared: "Why have you come here?"

It vanished, to be replaced by similarly-colored text stating, "Why would you want to save-" Whatever was about to come next, it was broken up by scrambled, flashing pixels. Frowning, Niko tried pausing the video to see if they could make out what it was trying to say, to no avail. After a minute of unsuccessfully attempting to pause it at the right spot, they gave up and pressed play again.

"You're already too late. In your absence, your old friend has been reduced to a neurotic shadow of the great and glorious protector you thought you saw."

"You..."

"..."

"You shouldn't be here."

"But if you want to, you can try anyway. You can try to make-" here the text scrambled itself again- "become the friend you remember once again."

"Is that what you want?"

The music stopped, and the text flickered, changing to dark purple, and it clicked into view slowly, spelling out "Then don't let me stop you." As the period appeared, a pair of purple eyes opened behind the text, glowing ominously. They were nearly identical to the eyes at the top of the page. Niko couldn't help but flinch as the glowing pupils seemed to stare directly into their soul.

The scene changed. A person in a gray jacket stood in a black void with their back to the camera, twitching slightly. The art style was pixelated, but it managed to look nice regardless. As they continued to twitch, the piano faded back in, even more quiet this time.

The scene shifted again. The person was still standing with their back to the camera, but they'd stopped twitching. They were standing in the middle of a brightly lit room with a small bed against the wall and an arrangement of child's toys against the other. The light was pouring in through the windows, but it seemed almost artificial in color.

The scene changed yet again. They were back in the void, twitching even more, and as the camera moved towards them, it looked like they were holding something. Before Niko could make out what it was, it shifted again, this time with the camera panning over a desolate, blackish cliff. The person was standing there, looking over a silent, unmoving sea, tinted an unnatural shade of bronze.

The scenes started shifting again, faster and faster, until they were going by so fast that Niko could barely see what was in any of them, until the trailer abruptly went back to the same view from earlier, with the person standing in the void.

New text appeared, dark purple again, stating simply, "The unthinkable happened. You failed and rendered both of us unfixable. This... this is all my fault. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." As it faded away, the person started to turn around, their head twitching even more violently as they did, grasping something tightly in their hands. The camera abruptly cut to black, giving Niko just enough time to see that it was colored a mixture of red and blue, before abruptly scrolling in red text that read "YOUR FINAL CHANCE AWAITS."

The trailer ended there.

Niko leaned back from the computer and sucked in a deep breath. Part of them just wanted to forget they'd ever seen the game and move on, but another part urged them on, relentlessly chanting. _Go on, get it. It's free, the trailer looked neat, and the ratings are good. What do you have to lose?_

As the situation was, Niko reached out and clicked the download button, though not without hesitation. "If I decide I don't like it, I can just stop playing," they said aloud as they watched the screen flash.

They were horribly right.


	2. Zenith Ascending

**A/N: Well, I decided upon a name for the player. I also decided to flesh out their character a bit more and make them an interesting character and not a generic blank slate.**

 **Also, here's a list of the music that the game could use in this chapter, in order, in case you want to listen to it in the background:**

 **My Burden Is Light (OneShot)**

 **Crestfallen (Home) (OFF spinoff)**

* * *

Surprisingly, the game didn't take that long to download- just a few minutes. Once the notification popped up that it had finished downloading, Niko clicked the icon and watched as the window opened. Quiet, echoing music began playing as the title screen appeared. It displayed an image of the same figure from the trailer, still facing away from the screen, standing in the midst of a black void. Purple mist floated around them and traced the outlines of two buttons labelled "START" and "QUIT."

Of course, they weren't going to just open the game and then quit, so Niko selected START and watched the screen fade away along with the music.

An image appeared of the figure in the gray hoodie- presumably a cutscene. As in the trailer, it was twitching erratically, still facing away from the camera. The black void it was standing against started to fracture as it continued to twitch, dark purple lines audibly tracing across the abyss with horrendous cracking sounds. Niko couldn't help but flinch, and they almost closed the window, but they pulled their hand away from the mouse as the thought crossed their mind.

Thunder crackled, and the window went black for a moment.

Text spread across the screen: _Hopefully you can finally begin to realize that it was all in your mind._

The text disappeared, and the screen faded to a new image: a small room, probably a bedroom judging by the large bed set in the center. There were a lot of books and papers strewn about on the floor, but asides from that it was reasonably tidy. A person in a gray hoodie was lying with their back against the bed, and as slow piano music began to play in the background they abruptly opened their eyes.

"Huh...?" was the first thing they said, displayed in dark purple text. The picture next to their text displayed a slightly confused expression, eyes narrowed beneath their smudged glasses. It also showed some finer details, such as the whitish fluff inside their hoodie, the unkempt state of their hair, and their steel-blue eyes. Niko couldn't help but feel that they were somehow familiar.

The character's expression changed to become more perturbed. "Right." they continued. "I must've just drifted off. First time that's happened since..."

They didn't finish their sentence, instead standing and placing their hands in the pockets of their hoodie. "Whatever," they sighed, eyes closed, and said nothing more.

There was a computer sitting on the floor next to the table, so Niko directed the character over towards it.

"Good. Assuming I don't launch back into my usual procrastination, I might actually do something useful for once." They sat down and turned on the computer to reveal a password screen. Before Niko could begin to try to figure out what the password might be, the character typed it for them: OZYMANDIAS.

The window filled with the image of the computer screen. Before Niko could send the mouse towards any of the various icons, a message appeared, stating "Why have you come here?"

The only option was to click "OK," so Niko did. The message vanished, to be replaced by a new one: "Why would you want to save Fritz?"

Niko blinked in surprise. They knew that name- they had travelled through a world under their guidance, after all- but what where they doing here?

 _Must be a coincidence,_ they thought, clicking OK again.

The next message read, "You're already too late. In your absence, your old friend has been reduced to a neurotic shadow of the great and glorious protector you thought you saw."

Frowning as they realized that the messages were just repeating the trailer, Niko clicked OK again. _I think I remember where this is going..._

"You..."

"..."

"You shouldn't be here."

"But if you want to, you can try anyway. You can try to make Fritz become the friend you remember again."

"Is that what you want?"

"Then know one thing."

"Your actions here will affect Fritz, whether you want it or not."

"Everything that happens here- that happens to Fritz- will be because of you."

"Whatever transpires under your hand will be your fault."

"Whatever Fritz goes through here, know that every action springs from you alone, and only you can be held accountable."

"And considering what they helped you through, you have no reason not to do your best to aid them."

 _Wait, what?_

"And yes, I am talking about your experiences in the sunless world. Consider that, if you will, as you march onward to the nightmare."

Suddenly, a new message appeared- not in the game, but an actual new window, in front of the game, and it said, "And do take care to remember one thing."

"This is your final chance, Niko."

Niko's eyes widened, and they instinctively scooted away from the computer. _How did it know my name? How did the game...? Is...?_

And then they remembered: the revelation that Fritz was not, in fact, a god, but simply an ordinary person who was running a world simulator program on their computer. _Is that what's happening here? Does that mean that Fritz was running a world simulator while inside a world simulator?_

Thinking about that just confused them, so they closed the pop-up just in time to see Fritz say, "What the hell was that?" A regretful expression crossed their face. "This is what I get for pirating that movie, I guess. I should probably find Dad and get him to look at it."

With no other option, Niko directed Fritz to the doorway. As they did, Fritz stopped and said, "Hang on... This feels familiar..."

Just as they were about to go through the doorway, Fritz stopped again. "No, this is..." Their expression snapped into shock. "W-wait! Does this mean..."

And then they stepped through the door into a black abyss, and the door vanished behind them. The music cut off, leaving the game silent.

"G...h..." Whatever Fritz had been about to say, they cut themself off. "Just stay calm. This has to be another dream." Their expression didn't seem to indicate that they believed themself, though.

As Fritz continued onward, a gradual droning noise began in the background, growing louder with each step. It was more than a little perturbing, but Niko ignored it for now.

"Is there anyone there?" Fritz called out, their expression carefully neutral.

And immediately after they asked, new text ticked slowly into view, tainted dark green: "BEHIND YOU."

Niko hammered the arrow keys as hard as they could, but Fritz wasn't under their control anymore. They slowly turned around to face the abyss behind them.

At first, it didn't seem like anything had changed, until an arm sprouted from the ground behind them, vibrating slightly and twitching from side to side.

"What" was all that Fritz had time to say before a writhing mass of fleshy matter erupted from the arm, gouging into the nonexistent ground around it and shaking with some silent laughter. Twisted intestine-like vines spewed forth and pierced the inky void, and in the midst of the eruption a single, bloodshot eyeball appeared in the middle of the thing, bright red and unblinking.

Fritz's outline flickered, and the scene abruptly dissolved into a mess of pixels. When it cleared up again, the scene had changed- more realistic-looking, though still pixelated, images of Fritz and the horrific amalgam of mutilated body parts had appeared at the top of the window, facing each other. Below them, a simple box outlined in white spanned the bottom half of the screen, and as the screen finished transitioning purple letters ticked into view:

 **It's in full bloom.**

 **Redemption in progress.**


	3. Inverted Pandemic

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, guys. I hope it'll be worth the wait.**

 **More BGM recommendations, in order of appearance:**

 **OFF fantrack "Bad Batter" (here's a link in case you have trouble finding it: s** **oundcloud dot com/yan-ade/bad-batter**

 **Crestfallen (HOME) (OFF spinoff)**

* * *

Niko's eyes widened, and they reflexively pushed their chair back as some kind of distorted electronic piano started playing in the background. They would have done more than that- truthfully, they wanted to just slam the computer shut and leave- but they couldn't do that.

Fritz needed them.

The thing's eyeball blinked slowly, still glaring at Fritz. In distorted, corrupted text, it spoke: **"What are you doing here- don't you have anything better to do- hence nothing remains-"** The text changed font with each hyphen, first in a formal font, then a more blocky, digitized one, then a pixelated one with odd, extended spaces between the words. Clearly irritated, the amalgamate of body parts shook and let out an audible screech. **"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE"**

The box at the bottom of the screen changed, turning into a display stating "FRITZ HP 100/100." Not knowing what to do, Niko tried hitting the spacebar, which shifted the text sideways and brought up a new menu next to it listing a set of options: Attack, Object, Flee. The last was grayed out and didn't respond when Niko tried to select it.

 _Attack. Attack. That's all I can do._ Niko maneuvered to the Attack command and hit space, and the picture of Fritz lunged, pulling a knife from their pocket and slashing a deep gash across the amalgam's eye. It writhed and let out another screech before lashing out at Fritz in retaliation. The image of Fritz staggered, clearly hurt by the attack.

FRITZ HP 79/100

 _Just keep attacking._ Niko pressed Attack again, Fritz lashed out again and sliced at the thing's eye again, and it reeled again, screeching louder. When the horrific creature stabbed another disjointed appendage at Fritz, it brought their HP down to 45.

 _This is bad._ Niko tried the Object menu, but there weren't any objects to use. Helplessly, they selected Attack again.

Fritz's swing was slower this time, and the creature took less damage from the impact. Nevertheless, Fritz's knife scored another thin line across the eyeball, and the creature screeched again.

And then it spoke, this time in the same tainted green text from earlier. "Why are you resisting?"

"I'm not going to die in some godforsaken void!" Fritz yelled back. On the picture next to their dialogue, new details came into view: fresh bruises on their face, blood trickling from the corner of their mouth and tears from their eyes.

"Why?" the creature asked. "It's not like anyone would care- in fact, you'd be benefiting them."

FRITZ HP 44/100

"And you know this for a fact, otherwise you wouldn't have tried it yourself."

FRITZ HP 43/100

"In fact, you were going to try to do it again just before you came here, weren't you?"

FRITZ HP 42/100

"Why else did you have that knife? You knew just how useless you are, otherwise you wouldn't have taken it upstairs."

FRITZ HP 41/100

"You're a useless waste of space. The world would be better off without you in it."

FRITZ HP 40/100

"Everything you do, you always find some way to mess it up."

FRITZ HP 39/100.

"That's not true!" Niko shouted, though they knew it was useless- how would Fritz be able to hear them? Instead, they could only watch helplessly as the thing continued on, steadily wearing Fritz down with each statement.

"Just die. That's what they would want. That's what they all secretly want."

FRITZ HP 38/100.

"You can't do anything right. You couldn't even figure out a way to save them all without looking it up."

FRITZ HP 37/100.

"Some god you are."

This time, Fritz managed to interrupt the thing. "I am not a god." they said quietly. "Nor do I want to be. I just... I just want it all to end. It's too much."

"Then let me help you."

"..." Fritz tilted their head down, a shadow falling over their face, as the music trailed off into oblivion. "Get it over with."

A new line of text appeared along the top of the screen: _Fritz's DMG was maxed out._

 _What?_ Niko frantically pressed the spacebar, but the controls refused to obey them.

The disjointed thing raised a limb, composed of many other limbs woven into one, and smashed it downwards towards Fritz. The screen cut to black with a slicing noise.

"No, no, no!" Niko didn't realize they were crying until they felt a tear fall onto their hand. After all this time, they'd thought they would get to see Fritz again, tell them everything that had happened, but now... now...

And then the game cut back to the battle screen, and Niko's sorrow was replaced by confusion: the amalgamate of limbs had fallen to the ground, twitching slightly, a huge slash through the eye nearly cutting it in half. Black blood dripped from the blade of Fritz's knife.

 _How... I thought they were..._

Though Niko was confused, somehow Fritz wasn't: instead, they examined the body with a satisfied expression. "The only person allowed to kill me is me." they stated before the screen transitioned back to normal. Though the game's overworld was far more pixelated than the battle screen, the gory details of the thing's bisection were still visible, and as Niko watched with a mix of awe and horror it collapsed into ashes.

Somehow, Fritz was... smiling? What? Turning away from the ashes, they stated, "Hence nothing remains except for our regrets."

Niko's biggest concern was whether Fritz was really okay now (disregarding the possibility that they'd instantaneously got over... _that_ somehow), or if they were just hiding behind a blank smile. There wasn't any option to talk to them about it, though: the only thing they could do was keep walking onwards through the darkness.

So, they gently pressed the arrow key and sent Fritz onward.

It didn't take long before they found something: a telephone, to be precise, an old, purple analog phone just sitting on a cabinet in the middle of the void.

Yeah, that works.

Niko directed Fritz up to it and pressed space, not really knowing what to expect. Fritz reached out and picked up the phone, holding it tentatively to their ear. With a reluctant expression, they said, "Hello?"

The phone answered almost immediately. "Uh, hello! Hello, hello! Uh, who is this?"

"M- my name's Fritz. I'm in this... this black abyss and there was this monster thing and... I..."

"Okay, Fritz, calm down. Let's just go over what- wait, you're Fritz?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"What?" A brief burst of static came from the phone. "What the- what on earth are you doing in there? How did you get here from the flipside?"

"I don't know! My computer broke, I opened my bedroom door and I found myself in this black void, and I- I..."

"Alright, alright, calm down. I'm making getting you out of there our number-one priority right now. Is Niko with you?"

"What?" Fritz scrunched their brow. "No, Niko isn't- wait, how do you know about them?" they demanded.

"..."

"Hello?"

"That's weird, they have to be there somehow or else you couldn't... Damn it! It doesn't matter. I'm sending in somebody to go get you, alright! Just hang in there, and whatever you do, DO NOT LET YOUR DMG MAX OUT."

"What? What's DMG?"

"I've- I've gotta go, alright! Just stay put!"

"No, don't hang up, please!"

 _Click..._

Fritz stared in disbelief at the phone for a moment before putting it back down. The same music from earlier, the piano that had played in Fritz's room, began again as they collapsed to the ground, their back against the cabinet. "God, what have I gotten myself into?" they asked. "I get some weird virus on my computer, I find myself in this place and stab whatever that thing was, some voice on a phone tells me to stay here and wait for help..." They frowned. "It's strange, though... I could have sworn I've heard that voice somewhere before..."

They didn't say anything else for a while, but when they spoke again, it was with a sorrowful expression. "I don't know why I even bother trying."

There was nothing left to do but wait for the so-called help, which came about five minutes too late.


	4. Androphonomaniacal Premonition

**A/N: About time, huh?**

 **BGM recommendations, in order of appearance:**

 **your new associate. (Hurricane Season) (here's a link in case you have trouble finding it: soundcloud dot com /gamecubetale/hurricane-season-your-new-associate)**

Niko let out a quiet sigh as they watched Fritz sitting there, a defeated expression covering their face. Though they wanted to do something, say something, they just couldn't find the words, and besides, Fritz probably wouldn't hear them.

Was this their fault? Could all of this have been avoided if they hadn't downloaded this game? Could they-

Whatever thought was about to cross their mind next, it vanished as a pulsing sound emanated from the void around Fritz.

Fritz lifted their head, startled. "What was that?"

"Glad you asked." said a new voice, the text dark purple.

The void parted, and a new character simply... appeared. There was no sound effect to announce their arrival, no visual change to transition into their appearance, they just suddenly appeared, as though they'd always been there. The character looked quite similar to Fritz, save that they were wearing a dark purple trench coat instead of a gray hoodie. They were holding a white staff of some kind in their right hand. As Niko watched, the staff flashed, becoming pure black and almost indistinguishable from the void behind it. A moment passed, and it flashed again, turning white once more. The flashing continued.

A quiet droning sound began in the background, quickly picking up and turning into a ghostly, vaguely menacing song. Niko instinctively scooted back from the screen a little.

"Wh- who are you?" Fritz's eyes widened in panic. "Are you the guy that called me on that phone?"

"I'm afraid not. He and I are two very different entities." The being's talksprite looked almost identical to Fritz's, save for the purple eyes and neatly combed hair. "I am... well, you may refer to me as Igneus. I am the one in charge of this reality and all of its denizens."

"This... reality? So I'm in a different universe now?"

"That's the quickest explanation, yes." replied Igneus briefly. "I take it you're more than a little concerned about how similar to you I appear?"

"That- that did cross my mind, yeah."

"Then allow me to reassure you that the resemblance is mere coincidence. There's no secret meaning behind it or anything." Igneus adjusted his grip on the still-flashing staff, lifting it slightly off the ground. "You're also likely concerned about more than a few things that you've noticed so far in this rotated perspective."

"Of... OF COURSE I AM!" hissed Fritz, a shadow falling over their face. "How did I get here? What was that... amalgamated eyeball thing? Who was that guy on the phone? Why did he ask if Niko was with me? What do they have to do with any of this? I thought they got to go back home and that was the end of it! They're supposed to be happy, living their own life! They should've been- should've... been..."

Igneus raised a hand in a pacifying gesture. "Calm down, Fritz."

"How the hell do you expect me to calm down?" demanded Fritz, raising a fist as if to lash out at their doppelganger. "Everything is WRONG!"

"Listen to me, damn you!" snapped Igneus. "Niko is right here with you! They have been since you walked through the door, probably even before that!"

That stopped Fritz dead in their tracks. "Wh... what?"

"You remember how things were in OneShot, right?" Igneus continued. "Niko was the main character, and you were the player. Well, the situation's been reversed. Now it's Niko's turn to play the game, and your turn to be the marionette."

"That's insane. Y-you're- you're lying."

"Don't believe me, do you?" Igneus tilted his head. "The mechanics are pretty much the same as they were before. Close your eyes and focus, and you'll be able to contact them." Before Fritz could reply, Igneus raised the flashing staff again. "Just humor me."

Fritz turned to face the screen and closed their eyes. As they did, everything around them descended into pitch-black darkness. It would have been less ominous were it not for the continuing ghostly music.

"H...hello?" Fritz said cautiously. "Niko? Are you there?"

A notification message popped up in front of the game window. _This program is attempting to access your microphone. Allow?_

Niko clicked the "yes" option, adrenaline rushing through them as the pop-up vanished. "I'm here, Fritz!"

Fritz's eyes snapped open, wide with shock. They turned back to Igneus, a genuine smile spreading across their face. "I... It worked! I heard their voice!"

"There, now we've got that cleared up." Igneus nodded in satisfaction. "That mechanic's going to work just like it did when you took the role of 'God' before. Don't hesitate to talk to Niko if you need their help with something."

"I... Okay. Alright. So is it going to be the same thing again?" questioned Fritz. "The whole 'save the world and go home after messing with the game files' shtick, I mean?"

"Not quite." Igneus chuckled, closing his eyes. "This is a different world from that of OneShot, remember? The objective this time isn't to save the world."

The ghostly music cut out as Igneus opened his eyes, now black and completely hollow, the same innocent grin still plastered across his face. "THE OBJECTIVE IS TO SAVE YOURSELVES. WHATEVER THE COST MAY BE. SAVE. YOURSELVES."

The music faded back in as color returned to Igneus's eyes and the smile dropped from his face. "You got that? Don't worry about the entities that inhabit these zones, they mean nothing. Your main priority is saving yourselves."

"...I... s-save ourselves from what?"

"You'll see soon enough." said Igneus. With a quick upwards jerk, he slung his staff over his shoulder. "I must be off now. I have much work to do. Good luck, Fritz."

"No, don't just go running off! Tell me what-"

Igneus vanished just as he'd left, the music fading back into silence.

"...Niko, do you have any idea what's going on?" Fritz queried, directing their attention upwards.

"Not really?" Niko frowned. They briefly considered telling Fritz about downloading the game, but then again, given what Igneus had told them, they'd probably figured that out already. "I wish I knew, believe me."

"I guess we'll have to figure it out as we go along, then." sighed Fritz, slumping back to the ground. "What do you think he meant by that? 'Save yourselves, whatever the cost may be.'"

"I wish I knew." Niko repeated.

Fritz let out a frustrated breath. "Guess we have to wait for whoever that guy on the phone sent to get us, then. Hopefully they'll be more helpful."

As plot convenience would have it, "whoever that guy on the phone sent" appeared just a few seconds later. Unlike Igneus, he had the courtesy to not suddenly appear out of nowhere, but rushing in from somewhere off the screen and skidding to a stop just in front of Fritz wasn't much better.

He also appeared to be a skeleton wearing sunglasses and a neon green bathrobe. So that was a thing that was happening.

"Oh." the skeleton said after a few moments. "Um. It really is you. I almost thought it was a stupid prank or something. Would've been a lot easier if it were."

Fritz blinked in shock. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm the guy on the phone. I couldn't find the person I was gonna send to get you, so I came out myself." The skeleton sweated nervously, which was probably anatomically impossible. "So you're really Fritz?"

"Yeah, I am. Who are you?" repeated Fritz.

"My name's Ethos." the skeleton replied. "I'm the resident generic idiot that everybody in this zone hates and wishes were dead. You'll probably follow their example once you see my natural incompetence in action." he added after a moment, nodding sagely.

"Talk about low self-esteem." snorted Fritz, pushing themself upright.

Having no eyebrows to raise, Ethos settled for peering owlishly at them over the top of his sunglasses. "Oh, you're one to talk."

Not for the last time, Niko couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on.

 **A/N: Alright, I finally got this done. Honestly, I'm not really happy with Ethos's introduction as it is right now, but I already rewrote it several times because I was afraid people would think he's meant to be a Sans Undertale ripoff just because he's a skeleton and I don't have the motivation to rewrite it anymore. Besides, you guys have been really patient and I don't want to delay this chapter's release any longer than necessary.**


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